Myanmar agrees to take back its verified citizens

This Star file photo shows a family of Rohingya refugees inside their shanty in the Outer Stadium area of Chittagong city.

In a major breakthrough, Myanmar has agreed to take back its verified citizens living in two refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh in next two months. 

Initially, they will take back 2,415 people, who have been verified as Myanmar citizens in 2005, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque told reporters after a meeting with Myanmar Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Thant Kyaw at the Secretariat in Dhaka today.

Now, some 32,000 refugees have been living in the two camps of Cox’s Bazar. 

“Though it will begin in a very small scale, it is a major breakthrough,” the foreign secretary said adding that the repatriation process will be completed within the next two months.  

Describing the meeting with the Mynmar deputy minister “fruitful”, he said a working group will be formed with the officials from both sides which will work on the process.

Wide ranging issues, including Rohingya, were also discussed in the four-hour long meeting. 

The Bangladesh foreign secretary said the countries have agreed to quicken the process to repatriate the fishermen of the two countries who have been languishing jail for minor offences.  

Some 200 Bangladesh fishermen are now in different jails in Myanmar, while some 110 Myanmarese languishing jails in Bangladesh.